State of the Climate 2016

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO have released their fourth biennial State of the Climate Report, which provides an update on the climate changes and long-term trends in Australia’s climate.

Karl will discuss the key findings from the report, which include:

- Australia’s climate has warmed in both mean surface air temperature and surrounding sea surface temperature by around 1°C since 1910.

- The duration, frequency and intensity of extreme heat events have increased across large parts of Australia.

- There has been an increase in extreme fire weather, and a longer fire season, across large parts of Australia since the 1970s.

- May-July rainfall has reduced by around 19 per cent since 1970 in the southwest of Australia.

- There has been a decline of around 11 per cent since the mid-1990s in the April-October growing season rainfall in the continental southeast.

- Rainfall has increased across parts of northern Australia since the 1970s.

- Oceans around Australia have warmed and ocean acidity levels have increased.

- Sea levels have risen around Australia. The rise in mean sea level amplifies the effects of high tides and storm surges.

Manager Climate Monitoring, Environment and Research Division, Bureau of Meteorology

Karl Braganza is the Manager of Climate Monitoring at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The Climate Monitoring section is responsible for the preparation, analysis and reporting of Australia's instrumental climate record. Karl received his PhD from the School of Mathematics at Monash University. His research work has centred on understanding and attributing climate variability and change. In his role at the Bureau of Meteorology, he has contributed as a lead author on the Bureau's State of the Climate publications and Climate Change in Australia Technical Reports.